Rainbows take on a whale of a challenge...

We love to inspire the next generation and were thrilled when 2nd Pembury Rainbows got in touch to tell us how much they had loved learning about the wonderful world of whales and dolphins and that they were going to take part in fundraising for ORCA

Amanda Baker from 2nd Pembury Rainbows gives us an account of the activities the Rainbows took part in and how they managed to raise an incredible £300 to support our vital conservation work.

2nd Pembury Rainbows decided to earn a wonderful dolphin challenge badge this summer. In order to achieve it, they had to meet a certain amount of targets, which allowed them to show that they had a greater understanding and experience of underwater life and the problems faced by it.

Having contacted ORCA, we were provided with an extraordinary amount of help and resources for the girls to achieve way above and beyond, the standards expected of girls aged 5 and 6. The challenge was on and my rainbows love a challenge.

We designed our programme so that the girls could work towards their goal over 2 rainbow meetings. In our first session, we sat and listened to some fun facts about dolphins, whales and porpoises, then in smaller groups the girls worked on a challenge about ‘dolphin descriptions’ – selecting the correct answers to given statements about the characteristics of a dolphin. We then went outside, and using the rainbows, we began ‘measuring giants’! It was brilliant fun and the girls were truly surprised at how many of their horizontal bodies it took to measure out creatures such as the bottle-nosed dolphin, orca and humpback whale.

Our final experience at this first meeting was to use the “blubber glove”! In truth, most of my adult leaders weren’t too keen to take part in plunging their hand into a bag, surrounded by another bag full of moulded lard! But the rainbows were fearless and were able to see how effective blubber is when it comes to being immersed in icy waters, as one of their hands went into a bowl of iced water and the other went into the blubber glove, also immersed in the same bowl of iced water.

Our second session was wholly set up around activities to raise funds for ORCA. The girls had worked towards finding sponsorship for a set of challenging activities I had set for them to take part in. We had a great turnout of family members to support the girls in their endeavours.

The first relay was to show them the pressures of animals that are kept in captivity for tourism. Each rainbow had to complete a set of obstacles while balancing a beanbag on their head, including going through hoops, jumping over hurdles and throwing balls into bowls.

Their second event of the evening was to decipher a different form of communication. In small groups, the rainbows with the help of a leader, translated a set of Morse code given to them via whistle, using the Morse alphabet they had been provided with. All the girls correctly identified the sounds as “rainbows have fun”.

My final task for the girls that evening, was a relay involving the perils faced by our underwater life. The girls had to crawl under a scramble net, which represented the hazards of fishing nets in the oceans. They then had to collect a plastic cup of water and finish the rest of the obstacle course of ‘rubbish’, which included tyres, metal crates and more plastic, to fill a container of coloured water, representing toxic waste also prevalent in our seas.

The girls were brilliant. I am so proud of them all and I hope that all that they learned and experienced, will make them better and more aware little humans in the future, who will protect and respect their environment, and those that share this world with them.

We want to say a huge thank you to 2nd Pembury Rainbows for taking on these challenges and raising vital funds to support ORCA.

If you want to get involved and inspire the next generation, why not sign up to take part in ORCA's Whale Education Month in October, and open your students' eyes to the wonderful world of whales and dolphins. We will provide you with a free 'Whale Education Kit' - lesson plans, materials and a programme of specially designed activities to help you to inspire the next generation about the wonders of the ocean.